This is going to seem a bit kooky but I have been doing a lot of reading lately and I have finally figured something out or so I think.. We are always told to do what will interest the visitor right? Well I wonder if short sales pages would work. I mean the mentality to buy is already there, so pinpoint it and center in.. What do I mean? Instead of sounding all hypey and spammish, give it to them straight to the gut. Kinda like someone punching you out of nowhere, but you were expecting it subconsciously.. Example: You are here for a reason, well let me not give you any fluff or hype, you then outline what the product is about and see what that does.. Any one try these types of methods? Do you feel you had any success? i have done it on some of my niches that people will buy from regardless.. My thoughts are people just don't have the time anymore to sit through a 25 minute sales copy or maybe they have ADD or something whacked like that.. Give them more productivity, center in on the user is what me thinks.
Your idea jamalg isn't kooky. In fact I've seen online copywriters test out that very same idea and achieve great success. However, the reason for their success wasn't solely from having used a short salesletter. The biggest reason for their success came from knowing the markets in which they were writing to. By knowing their markets state of awareness before hand, they could craft a short salesletter that would indeed work for them in that particular situation. For example. If the product or service that you're promoting in your salesletter is one that your market is fully aware of and your market realizes that this product or service can indeed solve their problem or help them reach their goal - then a short salesletter can work here. They're already familiar with similar products or services and the results that these items give, they just now need to know that a new product or service (yours of course) can give them those results. And that's why a short salesletter can work in this situation. If your market isn't aware of the product or service that you're promoting, but only a desire to have their problem solved or the ability to reach their goal, then you would need to focus in on their desire first in your salesletter and then bring in the product as a way for them to achieve their desired outcome. This would call for a longer salesletter. If your market isn't yet fully aware of what they seek, and concerned with a general problem, then your salesletter would need to start with that general problem and then you would have to take that general problem and turn into a specific need. This would call for a longer salesletter as well. So what's my point here? The length of your salesletter should be determined by the state of awareness of the market upon which you are writing to and not just if you think it's a good idea to use a short salesletter in that situation. And one last tidbit before I end this post. Whenever you see hype used to sell a product then you can bet that the product or service itself isn't all that great. Great products will literally sell themselves. Writing good copy is easy when you have a great product or service to write for. But when there are no clear benefits for using a product or service that separates it from the competition - then hype is usually the first tactic used to create separation from the competition. Never use hype. Just choose better products or services to promote.
Short copy certainly does work. But it needs to appropriately match what is being sold. You can go rght for the gusto if you have a "limited" product that sells for a few dollars or so, but don't expect to successfully sell anything more than maybe PLR or a report with just a few paragraphs of copy. Best of Luck!